Avatar - An IMAX 3D Experience - Out of the Planet

James Cameron's Pandora makes every other film makers' perception of the limits of the visual medium of cinema short sighted. You know for a fact that the visuals of the locations are "virtual" - yet the first shot of Pandora flatters you and you are pushed to a state of disbelief.



Where Avatar scores over every other motion picture made in the history of World Cinema is in stretching the visual medium to the farthest extent to make every other person believe in something, which only a pair of eyes could visualize and a lone soul could conceptualize for over a decade.

The dreams of Cameron projected on screen last close to 3 hours and all along it rides on a plot which is just a little fat than being categorized as wafer thin. The reason I say this is because the story narrated was simple, linear, straight forward and predictable at times too. You can clearly see a definitive lack of interesting sub plots and there were just a handful of characters who had a significant part to play. Hence, this cannot join the league of epics like Lord of The Rings.However, it is written to such a good extent that even if visuals were just one tenth as good as they actually were, the movie would still end up being good. Without a proper story to narrate, it is almost impossible to make a movie interesting and Cameron definitely seemed to be somone who believed every word of that.

Avatar is all about Pandora - her people, her flaura & fauna and her inhabitants' way of life. We discover everything about this distant planet along with Jake Sully's Avatar and the more we learn about Pandora, the more we get attached to the Na'vis, the natives of the place. The first hour is a tour of the space craft, the researchers and their technology to transport the human soul into the genetically built native featured bodies - controllable Avatars, Colonel Quaritch's team and their mission of unearthing 'unobtanium', a highly sought after mineral in Earth. The rest of the movie is about Jake's first entry to Pandora, his encounters, adventures, lessons, love, leadership and triumph in the battle against the invaders - the irony being accomplishing the exact diametric opposite of his chosen mission. As one may expect, a lot is said in the first hour and a lot happens in the rest. The tale of Pandora narrated to Jake keeps you engrossed and you are excited & anxious to step into it. Once Jake steps into it through his Avatar, the spell is cast on you and our avatars are now totally linked to the visual splendour all through the magic fable.

Experiencing Avatar is about standing testimony to the greatness of Cameron's vision and feeling the joy of witnessing a rare spectacle. There has never been a better visual portrayal of dreams before.

The journey of Pandora ends up being the ultimate experience. Celebrate it in the 3rd Dimension.